Auction for cancer friend raises $3500

SHABNAM DASTGHEIB

Last updated 11:51 26/11/2012

ROSS GIBLIN/Fairfax NZ

HELPING HAND: Sisters Lynda, 19, left, and Katy Grimmer, 21, have started a Trade Me auction to help their friend Molly Frank, 18, who has cancer, but ‘‘even to this day, puts people’s happiness before her own’’. They are holding a picture of her.

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Two Wellington sisters who set out to bring some joy to their friend with terminal cancer have raised thousands towards a dream holiday for her.

Wellington sisters Lynda and Katy Grimmer auctioned rights for their middle names on Trade Me to help their friend Molly Frank, 19, take a trip with her family to the South Island.

The sisters were not given middle names at birth and were open to ''creative ideas''.

The auction closed last night with a winning bid of $3520 made by a Kapiti Coast TradeMe member who wants to remain anonymous.

The girls will now change their names to Lynda Molly Grimmer and Katie Frank Grimmer, as was Molly's preference.

Lynda Grimmer said it would be amazing to have Molly's name as a part of her own for the rest of her life. ''We are over the moon. We didn't even expect to reach the reserve ($1500). It's something we can be proud of and have forever.''

Molly was diagnosed last June with rabdomyosarcoma - an aggressive type of cancer that causes tumours in soft tissue.

After a year of intensive chemotherapy and radiation at Starship hospital, she went into remission for three months before a new tumour was found in her chest. Molly will have one more round of radiation in an attempt to shrink the tumour.

Molly's mother Jo Bull said it was hard to express in words how she felt about the reaction to Molly's illness. ''Pretty amazed really. We feel pretty honoured that those girls had gone to such lengths. It shows how much Molly means to so many people and how much cancer in general affects so many people.''

She said Molly was feeling really happy that so many people cared about her.

The Levin family of six plan to use the money to help them travel down one coast to Bluff and back up the other before Christmas.

Molly was born on the West Coast and moved to the North Island when she was five. This trip will be the first time that the whole family has been back to the West Coast together.

The sisters described Ms Frank as a fun, selfless person who puts others first. She was training to be an early childhood teacher before she became ill.